Canterbury have decided to take no action after Ben Hannant was reportedly the subject of a religious-based verbal attack by Wests Tigers' Bryce Gibbs on Friday night.
The ugly verbal exchange captured by television cameras came after the fulltime siren in the Dogs' 24-4 victory and Hannant, a Mormon, had to be restrained by a Bulldogs trainer.

The Bulldogs could have lodged a formal complaint under the league's vilification code but decided against it.

Hannant and Gibbs both refused to comment after the match.

"I have spoken with both the NRL and Wests Tigers CEO Steve Humphreys today and all parties have agreed to leave the matter on the field,'' Bulldogs CEO Todd Greenberg said in a statement.

"Neither Ben nor the club will be making any further comments in relation to this matter.''

It has been an eventful few weeks for Test star Hannant, who recently revealed he was homesick for Queensland and wanted out of the final year of his contract with Canterbury, a situation still yet to be resolved.

The NRL treats religious discrimination in a similar vein to on-field racism under its vilification code.

But the culprit could yet be dealt with by the NRL match review committee if it deems a charge can be laid under its rules.

"Obviously there's a match review process that goes on on Monday,'' Annesley said.

"I can't pre-judge anything that might come out of that.''

The Bulldogs notched their second win of the year to finally get their season moving again.
Their only other victory had been the round three 60-14 demolition of the Sydney Roosters and coach Kevin Moore conceded the magnitude of that victory may have given his side a false impression of where they were at.

"Whilst we got away with plenty of points on the board, it was a hot day, the Roosters were probably there for the kill,'' he said.

"Sometimes you just fall into bad form and you can't see it happening - lack of confidence, lack of troops and a bit of cohesion.

"You get it back by starting with attitude and just playing strong and defending strong so hopefully next week we've got to improve on that.

"It was good (against the Tigers) but we certainly need to go to another level again next week and get consistency.''

AAP

QUOTE WestsTigers:"Fitzhenry is a very experienced player and will assist in providing leadership to the younger players in the Wests Tigers squad"

QUOTE Tim Sheens:"We owe our fans an apology for that today"

QUOTE Stephen Humphreys:"it was important to secure Fifita for a longer period"

While I am a believer in the Stick and Stones philosophy, others are not. Unfortunately in todays world you have to be very careful what you say, as if you get anyone offside it will come back to hurt you.

I dunno....I know I saw pedally carryin on after the full time whistle, yes, technically theyre ''still on the field'' I guess but game was over.
Its clear Gibbo respects him as a player, wouldnt feel the need to get under his skin if he was a nuffie

and it still rumbles on..it's ridiculous. Today we have news that the NRL are asking for Ch9 for audio of the game, still despite Hannant not making a formal complaint. If they find something and he gets rubbed out i will personally make a trip to the NRL headquarters and demand they look back and investigate Slater and if not will demand answers. I'm deadly serious and if the club do not fight this I will withdraw all support from this competition.

It's just a shocking display of doublestandards as was the incident with Gibbs 8 point try and suspension last year.

IronTiger wrote:and it still rumbles on..it's ridiculous. Today we have news that the NRL are asking for Ch9 for audio of the game, still despite Hannant not making a formal complaint. If they find something and he gets rubbed out i will personally make a trip to the NRL headquarters and demand they look back and investigate Slater and if not will demand answers. I'm deadly serious and if the club do not fight this I will withdraw all support from this competition.

It's just a shocking display of doublestandards as was the incident with Gibbs 8 point try and suspension last year.

Exactly. The NRL apparently thinks depression is fair game but religion is not.

Not only was this comment of yours pure garbage cnx, it has been dismissed by all concerned.

The only moron here is the person/s who reported it. Now it's pretty obvious to me that you are a religious person and thats fine, each to their own. However there are just as many who arent mate and that should be accepted as well.

I played footy on saturday and you wouldn't believe how many times I was called a "white *" during the game. People try and get under your skin mate - you need to stand on your own two feet not go crying to the authorities.

There is a time and place for everything...it's called the carpark and let me tell you it's better than any judiciary you could think of.